Is The Catholic/Christian Bible Inacurate?

[jmf83]

I am a Catholic and believer in Jesus and the Bible. Throughout my lifetime, I must admit, that moments of doubt have entered my mind.

I recently read the following statement on a Jewish website:

"Bible translators took great care to make their versions beautiful in language, imitating as best they could the form of the original Hebrew. One of the very first translators, Jerome, openly stated, “So great is the force of established usage that even acknowledged corruptions please the greater part, for they prefer to have their copies pretty, rather than correct.”

Even if Bible translators made an effort to produce a translation that accurately reflects its true meaning, they would still encounter innumerable obstacles. For example, the original text of the Bible is written without vowels; only consonants are used. Each word can be read and made to mean almost anything, depending on the vowels one introduces. The first verse in chapter two of Genesis reads: “Thus the heavens and the earth were finished.” It can also be read as: “Thus the heavens and the earth were destroyed."

This statement is certainly feasible. How can we know without question that the message of the Bible is the true word of God? Could the translators have twisted the original meaning of the text to support their own agenda?

I am not giving up my faith but these are the kind of thoughts that have given me reason to question the strength of my beliefs.

 

[Dogface_Soldier]

Because Jesus established a Church, and endowed it with the capacity to discern and teach truth; indeed, it is “the pillar and foundation of truth”. Your concerns are totally legitimate, and they illustrate why sola scriptura is untenable.

 

[Crimson_Seraph]

Because Jesus established a Church, and endowed it with the capacity to discern and teach truth; indeed, it is “the pillar and foundation of truth”. Your concerns are totally legitimate, and they illustrate why sola scriptura is untenable.

That’s nice, but it doesn’t answer his question. He needs to hear from a good Christian Hebrew Scholar is what he needs. Not “well the Church says it’s true, so it must be.” That isn’t going to help him convince Jews or Pagans, or athiests or agnostics. He needs to hear from someone who speaks and writes the language to assure him that what we have is true. Alas, I am not that scholar, but I encourage him to seek one out!

Just my two coppers.

 

[COPLAND_3]

Because Jesus established a Church, and endowed it with the capacity to discern and teach truth; indeed, it is “the pillar and foundation of truth”. Your concerns are totally legitimate, and they illustrate why sola scriptura is untenable.

Marvelous answer! That it is very thing that helps me get past those moments of doubt.

But I also have those doubts that run through my mind from time to time, which in turn makes me study and research that much harder.

The OP said

For example, the original text of the Bible is written without vowels; only consonants are used. Each word can be read and made to mean almost anything, depending on the vowels one introduces. The first verse in chapter two of Genesis reads: “Thus the heavens and the earth were finished.” It can also be read as: “Thus the heavens and the earth were destroyed."

True. But we also have an ancient version of the OT called the Greek Septuagint, which was translated by 72 Jewish scholars before Christ came. This allows us to see how the word divisions are supposed to be, courtesy of 72 men who would surely know. Also we have much of the texts from Aquila Symmachus and Theodotion who very early on also translated the Hebrew into Greek, which gives us more testimony. So we are not at the mercy of the Masoretes who attempted to produce a standardize Hebrew Text (Masoretic Text) that unfortunately is the standard OT format of many translators today. The Septuagint is much more reliable for a number of different reasons.

As for the New Testament and the uncial script that can produce the same “problem”, there are no spaces between words nor puncuation, so how do we know where the word divisions should be? The answer is the Early Greek Church Fathers. They spoke the language as their first language, and we have tons of writings such as apologetic works, commentaries, homilies, epistles, etc from them that when you put them together their Scripture citations pretty well cover every passage of the Bible.

So there is much more to our understanding of the correct text of the Bible without relying on modern day translators, we have over 2000 years of Bible transmission that gives us more than enough to produce a reliable Bible translation.

 

[Fidelis]

Dogface Soldier and Copland3 – both of your answers, taken together, are excellent.

 

[JRKH]

I am a Catholic and believer in Jesus and the Bible. Throughout my lifetime, I must admit, that moments of doubt have entered my mind.

Anyone who is serious about understanding and drawing closer to God is going to have doubts. It’s actaully healthy to a point.

I recently read the following statement on a Jewish website:

"Bible translators took great care to make their versions beautiful in language, imitating as best they could the form of the original Hebrew. One of the very first translators, Jerome, openly stated, “So great is the force of established usage that even acknowledged corruptions please the greater part, for they prefer to have their copies pretty, rather than correct.”

Even if Bible translators made an effort to produce a translation that accurately reflects its true meaning, they would still encounter innumerable obstacles. For example, the original text of the Bible is written without vowels; only consonants are used. Each word can be read and made to mean almost anything, depending on the vowels one introduces. The first verse in chapter two of Genesis reads: “Thus the heavens and the earth were finished.” It can also be read as: “Thus the heavens and the earth were destroyed."

This statement is certainly feasible. How can we know without question that the message of the Bible is the true word of God? Could the translators have twisted the original meaning of the text to support their own agenda?

I am not giving up my faith but these are the kind of thoughts that have given me reason to question the strength of my beliefs.

I’m going to fall back on the old statement (slightly maligned above) that we believe whats in the Bible because the Church says so. But not simply that.
It is because the Church stretches back to the beginning that we can have confidence in the Bible that bears the “imprimatur”. We not only have the texts in Greek, but we have the Traditions and Testimonies of those who lived at the time. They have passed down these testimonies and traditions to us through the Reliability of Holy Mother Church.

There will always be those who twist the Bible, either through translation or, more commonly, through interpretation. Rely on “The Pillar and Foundation” of Truth, along with prayerful reading and frequent trips to the Sacraments to keep you on course.

Peace
James

 

[dkdempsey]

Oh my stars, yes, it is so inacurate. People try to pass it off as a history book. How sad.